Speaker Om Birla to stay away from Lok Sabha till no-confidence motion is decided

New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has decided not to attend proceedings of the House until the no-confidence motion is decided, sources close to him said on Tuesday. 

While the Rules of Procedure do not mandate such a step, Birla has taken the decision voluntarily, sources said, adding that he will not enter the House irrespective of any attempt by the government or the Opposition to persuade him otherwise.

According to sources, the motion to remove the Speaker is likely to be taken up on March 9, the first day of the second part of the Budget Session.

As per parliamentary procedure, at least 50 members would be required to rise in support of the notice for the motion to be admitted, following which the Chair may allow a discussion.

Sources indicated that the no-confidence motion against Birla is expected to be discussed at the start of the second phase of the Budget Session.

On Tuesday, a total of 118 MPs from Opposition parties submitted a notice seeking the removal of the Speaker, accusing him of partisan conduct in the functioning of the House.

The notice was submitted on behalf of the Opposition by a Congress MP, alleging that Birla repeatedly denied Opposition leaders, including Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, the opportunity to speak during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. The notice also cited the suspension of eight Opposition MPs.

In the notice, the Opposition alleged that the Speaker conducted proceedings in a “blatantly partisan manner” and failed to protect the democratic rights of Opposition members.

However, the motion is unlikely to succeed numerically. For a resolution seeking the Speaker’s removal to be carried, the Opposition would require the support of more than half of the total strength of the Lok Sabha, which is 543.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the single largest party, has 240 MPs, while its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners -- including the Telugu Desam Party (16 MPs) and the Janata Dal (United) (12 MPs) -- give the ruling coalition a comfortable majority, with additional support from other regional parties.

In contrast, the Congress leads the Opposition with 99 MPs, followed by the Samajwadi Party (37) and the DMK (22), leaving the Opposition well short of the numbers required to remove the Speaker.

Trinamool Congress has not signed the motion but suggested different ways to lodge a protest. Party MP Abhishek Banerjee, speaking to media persons in Delhi on Tuesday, said that the party is in favour of first giving a protest letter to the Speaker and then wait for his reply. Only after that, a no-confidence motion should be moved, he said.

Given the arithmetic, the motion is widely being viewed as a political signal by the Opposition rather than a serious attempt to unseat the Speaker.

While attempts to remove the Speaker have been made in the past, they have never been successful.

--IANS

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